Light My Kindle

CNN has a preview of some new techie gadgets coming up, one of which is a fancy e-ink innovation. It’s supposed to be an improvement on the newspaper-reading experience. Reading newspapers, while an excellent way to get information, can be cumbersome on a commuter train (you try reading a fold-open-style newspaper with a cranky commuter sitting elbow-to-elbow with you!) and can leave your fingers with inky smudges.

A designer named Sebastien Bettencourt has designed a version of e-paper that will allow users to move seamlessly through content. Instead of clicking a button to turn pages, you can move or shake the “paper.” It’s an interesting concept, although I’m not entirely sure it’s better than clicking a button.

To read all about it, and other innovations, visit CNN.com’s technology section.

Sony announced a new reader featuring a touchscreen, which will allow readers to turn pages with the swipe of a finger (much like you can flip through photos on an iPhone or iTouch). It has larger storage capacity than the Kindle (about 350 books, compared to Kindle’s 200), but still doesn’t have the wireless connection that makes the Kindle so special.

The new reader will be approximately $400, making it more expensive than the Kindle’s current $359 price. Whether a touchscreen is worth it to new e-reader purchasers is yet to be seen. Personally, I’d prefer to read my books without fingerprints all over them.

Read more about the new Sony PRS-700 at Tech News World.

Crunch Gear reports that Target will now be selling the Sony E-reader and various accessories. This is a big step for Sony, since some consumers may hesitate to buy the Kindle, a product they can’t see and hold before pulling out the credit card. If Target’s smart about their promotion, they’ll have a demo version available for customers to play with in-store, just like video games, digital cameras and other gadgets.

We all know the Kindle isn’t the only e-reader in the game, but this new reader from Plastic Logic could be a big draw for the morning commuters. It’s designed specifically for newspapers, having a screen two-and-a-half times the size of the Kindle’s screen. To top it of, it’s flexible, like your morning newspaper.

Boing Boing has more details and a picture of the new device. It could attract the morning commuters who prefer to read The Boston Globe over, say, a Stephen King novel on their Kindle.

There’s no word on price yet, but I would assume it would be competitive for the Kindle and the Sony e-reader. Would you prefer a bigger screen and a flexible display to the book-ish design of the Kindle?

The Kindle isn’t the only e-reader in the game. There’s the Sony Reader, of course, and the aptly named iLiad. Some tech users are heralding the iPhone as a fabulous e-reader. In particular, Salon.com has called it “the best and worst e-book reader ever.”

In their post, (which coincidentally features Stephen King’s On Writing on the iPhone screen - On Writing was my first Kindle book) they go over the reasons why the iPhone is an excellent e-reader (backlight, one do-all device) and why it’s a horrible e-reader (no way to browse books directly from the app). One concession they do make towards the Kindle is,

Unlike Palm or BlackBerry or Nokia smart phones, the iPhone’s screen is comparatively gargantuan. No, not as large as the Kindle’s with its nice wide margins that add to the illusion of actual ink on paper, but wonderfully white and bright with beautiful contrast.

Personally, I like that the Kindle doesn’t have a backlight. I stare at my computer enough during the course of a day, so when I’m reading for pleasure I don’t want a bright light shining in my eyes. What about you, fellow Kindle owners? Do you like or dislike the lack of a backlight on the Kindle?

Visit Salon.com for the full review.

Here’s a short video review and hands-on demonstration of the new Sony Reader, arguably the Kindle’s biggest competitor. The review is by one of my favorite gadget blogs, Shiny Shiny. You can watch the review by clicking here.